BANGOR – With the short-term crisis averted, representatives of Penn National Gaming Inc., state officials, business leaders and other stakeholders now are working to resolve some of the issues that prompted the company to temporarily stop work last week on its $131 million gaming and hotel complex on Main Street.

Tuesday found work crews preparing to cement Penn National’s commitment to the Bangor project in a physical way: They were compacting earth in anticipation of pouring concrete later this week.

The focus now has shifted to finding some way to provide Penn National the assurances it is seeking to make sure its multimillion-dollar project remains viable.

What form those assurances might take remained unclear Tuesday.

“The fact is that we all believe that there is room for improvement of the current arrangement, though what direction that will take hasn’t been decided,” David Farmer, spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci, said Tuesday.

“There are options out there that might benefit both the state and Penn National, and it’s just a matter of deciding what’s best for everybody,” Farmer said, adding that those options include changing state law “so that we won’t have to replay this drama year after year.”

“People are still talking,” Farmer said. “We’ve gotten people back to work. That was a good-faith gesture” on the part of both Penn National and state officials.

“Penn is in the process of sitting down with legislators,” company spokesman Eric Schippers said Tuesday. He said the company did not have any specific requests with regard to the reassurances it is seeking.

The parent company of Hollywood Slots at Bangor, Penn National stopped construction at the 8-acre site across from Bass Park early last week in response to a pair of legislative proposals that called for using more revenue from the company’s slot machines as a way to balance the state budget.

Penn National now operates 475 slots out of an interim facility in the former Miller’s Restaurant building just yards away from the construction site, but is authorized to run up to 1,500.

On Monday, the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee officially killed the two slots revenue proposals as a show of good faith aimed at getting workers back on the job.

“We were on the edge of a major catastrophe, no question about it, and I think that’s behind us now,” said Peter Vigue, president and CEO of Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp., the project’s general contractor.

“It was a challenge to deal with, but it had a positive outcome,” he said Tuesday. “Everyone learned from it and the state’s going to benefit from it regardless of what the issues are and the problems the state is facing.

“I believe that every problem is an opportunity. In this particular case, I don’t believe there is a single individual in Augusta and the Legislature who doesn’t have the best interest of the people of the state of Maine at heart.

“They all want to do the right thing. So knowing that, people need to invest their time and energy in communicating and educating our representatives in Augusta [about] what will enhance and improve the economy in the state,” he said.

“Sometimes we [business leaders] are so busy trying to survive that we don’t spend enough time with the Legislature helping [lawmakers] to understand how important things are to the economy and the state. In many cases, it’s hard for them to get that feedback. [As head of one of the East Coast’s largest construction companies] I hear it all and see it all so it’s incumbent on me to share what I see and what I know.

“It’s a great outcome. It was a painful start for sure and nothing that anybody wants to experience again,” Vigue said.

“At the same time, I would tell you that Penn National is an extraordinary company and they have gone out of their way to insist that Maine people and Maine companies are building the project,” Vigue said, adding that the vast majority of workers involved in building the permanent facility live within 50 miles of the work site.

Word that the project was back on was met with applause at the end of a Bangor City Council meeting Monday night.

The Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, which has more than 800 members, also was relieved. In response to the May 8 work stoppage, the Chamber’s executive committee issued a position statement condemning the Legislature’s move. Because members wanted to help as individuals, the Chamber also launched a petition to that end.

As of early Tuesday afternoon the Chamber had collected about 600 signatures, President Candy Guerette said.

“We started this on Friday,” Guerette said. “That’s only 2 1/2 business days. From my point of view, what this really shows was how upset everyone was with the way Mainers would be perceived nationally.

“Historically, Mainers have been known for standing by our word and our reliability and dependability,” she said. “We’re that type of culture. We were raised that way and that’s how we’re raising our children. This really sent a [negative] message to the national development community.”

Though the potential loss of Penn National’s $131 million project was dire in itself, Guerette said it had even larger implications for Bangor, which is depending on its share of the slots revenue as a way to fund a replacement for the city’s aging auditorium and civic center.

“You could say we would have lost two big projects,” she said.